Have you ever run a 26.2 mile marathon?

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Barefooters
May 13, 2010
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I read this story and am a bit surprised that they actually reduced peoples race times. Every marathon I have run has been several tenths of a mile longer than 26.2. I always assumed it was how you took the corners. Has anyone actually ran a 26.2? Should I be allowed to subtract time off of my PR for the 0.2 miles extra I ran, like they did?

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_16558468
 
Check out these odd

Check out these odd comments

Luke Crespin, a Littleton resident who placed fourth overall in 2:44:16 after the adjustment, had 38 seconds deducted from his time.

"It seemed like it was a long course," he said. "The placement of the mile based on the course maps were quite a bit farther. But it didn't necessarily affect me as much as it could have if I were going for Boston."

Can someone honestly differentiate 232 meters from 42,195 meters? And he crushed the BQ time anyways? Weird.
 
If it's just a PR, which only

If it's just a PR, which only means something to you, then yes, you should be able to adjust your time accordingly to fit the exact distance, but if it's published report of all participant's race times, then everyone should have to go by the times/distance set by the race officials, which will keep you all on an even playing field.
 
Yea, I thought that felt a

Yea, I thought that felt a little 38 seconds too long.
 
All I know is that courses

All I know is that courses are measured by tangents (closest distance between start and finish). Both my marathon's, ALL of my other races, and my own training runs are always longer than the posted distance or MAPED distance (from Google).

This last marathon my watch said I ran 26.73 miles. Now I stopped to pee, take a photo with mom, took some wide turns, but I don't think that equals .53 miles. I know the Garmin GPS watches aren't perfect, but I guess they are close enough for an idea. I like using the overall pace feature on the GPS, but it sucks in a marathon because when I was staying on a 10 min mile pace, I really needed to be at 9:53 pace on my watch to hit 4:22. I ended up being even a little slower than that because at about mile 18, I stopped really looking at my watch and just enjoyed the race. when I add in the extra mile I ran at the begining of the race, I am approaching 28 miles, sounds like and ULTRA to me. HA
 
Two things: A GPS will never

Two things: A GPS will never show the exact route you ran, it's just not accurate enough, and this combined with it being more or less impossible to run a "perfect" race in terms of tangents your watch will always, in a road race, show a distance tha's longer than the one you ran and the measured course. On a trail this is the other way around since the GPS will struggle with all the twists and turns so the total distance will be short.

Secondly, the measuring practices state that the course should be at least the stated distance, 42195 meters in this case, and allow for a certain margin of error, I believe it's 1/1000 or something similar so the "real" distance measured is never less than 42237 meters.
 
the marathon world is so full

the marathon world is so full of whiners. Pathetic. You think ultra runners are going to whine and complain about an extra couple yards?

Pffft!
 
Yes.  I can hear Jason

Yes. I can hear Jason whining now.
 
Teasing, of course, Jason!

Teasing, of course, Jason!